


come here, let me fix it

by Challenges (DanceInTheKitchen)



Series: 100 ways to say I love you challenge- Batfam edition [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: (kinda sorta he's not a pro just likes doing it for fun), Angst, Brother-Sister Relationships, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Good Bro Dick Grayson, Good Older Sibling Dick Grayson, Makeup, Makeup Artist Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown Needs a Hug, makeup art, only a little tho for ~flavor~
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:00:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27228499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanceInTheKitchen/pseuds/Challenges
Summary: She goes to the small apartment she shares with her mom, grabs her makeup bag, and hurries into the bathroom.Stephanie uses the one color of eyeshadow she had, a dark blue, and tries to paint the night sky on her right cheek.When she’s done, Stephanie cries. She looks like a five year old who decided to play with their mom’s makeup. The dark blue is a huge smear on her cheek and the stars she tried to paint with her concealer look like little lumps of off-white.Stephanie washes it all off her face, her fingers scrubbing and scrubbing until she rubs her skin red and raw.Or, Stephanie doesn't feel she is a "real" Wayne
Relationships: Stephanie Brown & Dick Grayson
Series: 100 ways to say I love you challenge- Batfam edition [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987897
Comments: 6
Kudos: 160





	come here, let me fix it

**Author's Note:**

> Dick & Stephanie for prompt 3 :D
> 
> This was originally posted on a diff work on my main pseud!
> 
> Enjoy & let me know what you think in comments!!!

It’s Sunday and Stephanie is losing her mind.

She’s so _bored._

Cass is busy with ballet lessons, Damian is being a little shit again and ignoring her, Tim is with the Titans, and there is no way to even know where Jason is. Alfie is in the kitchen, and everyone knows you don’t bother Alfred when he’s cooking. And she would _never_ go to Bruce to alleviate her boredom, he’d probably combust.

(Poor guy seems like the type not to understand how to be normal and take a break, this after all was the guy who dealt with trauma by putting on a bat costume and beating up criminals.)

(Not that she can really say anything, that would just make her a hypocrite.)

So her only hope is Dick.

And currently he’s passed out on the couch in the den. Dick had just come back to the manor after a double shift at Bludhaven General, and he’s probably napping so he can patrol with them later. Stephanie is a little shit who loves chaos, but even she’s not that much of a shit to wake him up when he’s so clearly tired.

So she sighs and resigns herself to a boring afternoon.

Stephanie plops down on the armchair next to Dick’s sofa. She opens her phone and starts scrolling through it. She quickly falls down the rabbithole of social media. On snapchat she finds a channel about makeup art, and it keeps her busy until dinner that evening.

Later that night at patrol, when it’s quiet and slow, Stephanie thinks about those videos. 

She thinks of those people, their faces covered in their art. 

Blue, white, and green splashed together on one person’s cheekbone to create a sea. 

Red, orange, and pink splashed on another person’s forehead to emulate the sunrise.

Stars covering their chins and cheeks. Flowers blooming from the corners of their eyes. Hearts dotting their eyelids and lips.

She thinks of her little makeup bag filled with convenience store makeup. The kind that makes her skin itch and turn a blotchy red. The kind that makes her break out every time she wears it. The kind that is filled with chemicals that make her skin peel.

It’s the only kind she can afford.

Unlike Cass, who is Bruce’s child, Stephanie doesn’t have access to the money to pay for good makeup. She only has the little money in her bank account, and whatever her mom has which isn’t much.

So spending money on frivolous things like better makeup just so she can try makeup art is ridiculous.

(It doesn’t make her want to do it any less.)

Stephanie shakes her head of these thoughts as she continues on patrol that night.

The next week is very similar to Sunday.

She still has this crushing boredom during school, but as soon as it’s over she goes to hang out at the manor and watch more makeup videos on her phone.

Stephanie’s obsessed now. She can’t stop watching the videos.

It’s so beautiful, the process of turning a blank canvas of one’s face into something... otherworldly? ethereal? exquisite? 

She thinks that maybe Damian, the only artist in the family, might understand.

That Saturday she helps Cass get ready for her ballet recital. Stephanie almost cries when she sees Cass’s makeup bag. It’s filled to the brim with expensive products and brushes. Stephanie’s not sure she’s even heard of some of these (Hydrating primer?? Rose gold toner?? Jade stone facial roller??).

Cass had three different types of eyeliner, five styles of mascara wands, and entire vials of glitter.

Stephanie stares at her bag in shock, she’s not sure she realised that eye shadow could even come in these many colors.

Well, what did she expect? Cass probably wasn’t taught much about makeup art, so Bruce probably bought all this for her. He probably just bought a bunch of high end beauty products for Cass to try.

(Everyone knows that Bruce loves spoiling his children, he definitely has the money for it.)

(Everyone knows Bruce loves spoiling his ~~daughter~~ ~~s~~ daughter.)

Cass does an amazing job at her recital and the whole family goes out for ice cream. Steph’s not really sure why but she feels like she’s intruding. She’s always gone to post-recital ice cream with the Waynes, but for some reason she feels like she’s intruding today.

So Stephanie grins, tells Cass she did an amazing job and goes home, telling everyone she has homework she needs to finish.

(She knows they don’t fully believe her, they are detectives after all. But it’s ok, they wouldn’t understand what she was feeling and they won’t ask.)

(No one in their messed up little family is very good at emotions anyway.)

She goes to the small apartment she shares with her mom, grabs her makeup bag, and hurries into the bathroom.

Stephanie uses the one color of eyeshadow she had, a dark blue, and tries to paint the night sky on her right cheek.

When she’s done, Stephanie cries. She looks like a five year old who decided to play with their mom’s makeup. The dark blue is a huge smear on her cheek and the stars she tried to paint with her concealer look like little lumps of off-white.

Stephanie washes it all off her face, her fingers scrubbing and scrubbing until she rubs her skin red and raw.

When she patrols that night, she knows the others are assessing her silently, especially Cass. Stephanie puts on her brightest smile and cracks as many bad jokes as she can.

The next day she swings by the manor again to hang out. She doesn’t particularly want to, but not doing so would be extremely out of character and would probably bring the entire Batfamily down on her.

As she leaves, Stephanie grabs her makeup bag. Early this morning, after patrol, she decided that even with her shitty makeup she would master makeup art.

At the manor she spends some time hanging out with Cass and Tim. But after Tim leaves to hang out with Kon, and Cass goes grocery shopping with Alfred, Steph dumps her makeup onto the counter in the upstairs bathroom.

She’s just finished painting the eyeshadow on her cheek when she’s interrupted.

“You trying makeup art?”

Dick is leaning against the door frame, face curious.

“Uh, yeah!” Stephanie says. “It’s not going great as you can see, I’m trying to make the night sky.” She gestures at her face, with a small laugh.

Dick’s eyebrows furrow thoughtfully. He nods once and then hurries away to his bedroom.

Stephanie had just shrugged and turned back to the mirror, when he came hurrying back carrying a wooden case in his hands. She watches as Dick sets it carefully on the counter of the sink next to the one she’s using.

He turns to her and beckons her to come closer, “Come here. Let me fix it.”

She comes over to him, slightly curious. Stephanie gasps when she sees what’s inside his case. It’s a professional makeup kit that puts Cass’s makeup bag to shame.

Dick takes her face in his hands and gently cleans the makeup off. He then started doing her makeup while showing her how to clean the brushes and use the products. He teaches her how to match her skin tone to her foundation, how to make the base for the night sky, how to add little stars with highlighter and glitter.

Stephanie watches as under his careful hands her face transforms. The night sky is stretching across the left side of her face, and from the right is the daytime sky. The dark blues mix with the lighter shades in the middle of her face. Her left eyelid is the moon, her right eyelid is the sun.

Stars dot her left cheekbone. Little birds (she thinks they might be robins?) dot her right cheek.

She wonders where he learned to do this. How long he’s known how to do this. Why he learned.

Why he has a kit full of makeup he never wears.

Stephanie wants to ask, but right now she’s busy listening as he teaches her how to use makeup. She’s busy learning how to take care of the ridiculously expensive brushes and products Dick’s pushing into her hands and in her tiny, beat up makeup bag. 

She’s busy watching her _brother_ paint the sky on her face.

(She won’t ask. Not now. Not now when there is a small, sad, nostalgic smile on his face.)

(Maybe she isn’t the only one who feels out of place here in this manor, in this family.)

(But that’s a tale for another time.)

**Author's Note:**

> I know literally nothing about makeup lmao. If you want to know why Dick knows how to do makeup art,,, just wait ;) It will be the second part of the "Paint my love on your face" series (name might change b/c I'm shit at naming things lol)


End file.
